Willis
Willis is the name of an ancient Greek magician and the assumed name of the first dungeon master in the labyrinth series. Little is known about the history and life of the original Willis which are elements shrouded in mystery. Willis is synonymous with a symbol of an eyeball trapped in a maze, called the Eye of Willis but very little is known about this image. History Ancient History The history of Willis is blurred and mysterious. At some point it is known he was a court magician working for King Minos in ancient Greece. However he was reckless and became too powerful resulting in Minos sending Willis into exile. He also has an undisclosed history with the Greek hero Theseus, who he seems to have a loathing of. Death Willis' final objective in life was to search for the Sword of Theseus, a mystical sword that allowed Theseus to accomplish great deeds such as his slaying of the Minotaur in the labyrinth of Daedalus. He eventually traced the location of the sword to Inferno, also known as Hell. These findings were well documented as successors to his position later used them for labyrinths they created. He made his way through the caverns surrounding Inferno before discovering the docks of the Acheron guarded by the ferryman Charon and his apprentice Dante Aligheri. Since he didn't have an obol, the required form of payment for Charon, Willis challenged Charon to a sword-fight. Willis won the battle by be-heading Charon, who despite his immortality temporarily lost his balance and control and toppled into the Acheron. Dante was forced to ferry Willis across to the gates of Inferno which were now guarded by King Minos. It is not known what transpired beyond this, but Willis never made it out of Inferno and died beyond the gates. MOS as Willis The first known instance of somebody attempting to use the Willis persona was MOS (aka Brian Holmes) who created a labyrinth as a means to enact a brutal revenge against a group of people. The labyrinth and the setup were inspired greatly by stories of ancient Greek mythology (including a faux Sword of Theseus and Minotaur), and many of the notes MOS used as inspiration were taken from Willis' own documents. Of all those he captured, the only survivor was Curtis Page, "The Butcher". Curtis killed MOS as he planned to escape, taking his cowl and the Willis identity in order to build a new labyrinth of his own which would be more brutal than the one MOS created. Curtis as Willis After studying the notes MOS secured on Willis extensively, Curtis decided to search for Hell's gate. He had no interest in the Sword which drove Willis to the search but rather, wanted to build a dungeon that crossed over into Inferno as an ultimate act of brutality, forcing people to face up to the horrors as he watched. He hired a team of miners to locate the gate and then killed them all before using the mechanical Minotaur MOS built as a means to develop his own labyrinth in the caverns around the Acheron. Finally, he decided to make the ultimate test be to retrieve the key from just inside the gates of hell themselves. He made it beyond the gates but without any protection from the spirits within, his body became possessed by the soul of Willis which had been desperately searching for a host in that place since his death. Revival as the butcher Taking over the body of the butcher, Willis was able to return to complete his objective. However some attributes of the butcher seeped into his personality and made his goals and desires a little less strategic and a lot more brutal. Reeling from his initial attempts to take the Sword, he decided to create the ultimate soldier through the medium of possession he'd discovered. Capturing groups of skilled people, he experimented by throwing them into the Chamber of Souls near the banks of the Acheron and witnessing the ensuing effects on the person. In every case, the person turned into a feral, uncontrollable beast. Willis opted for a slightly different approach due to this failure in which he would select an individual who could retain enough of their humanity after death, capture their soul and force it to possess a number of bodies. Since his own spirit had acquired characteristics of the butcher, he reasoned characteristics could be acquired this way instead. However at some point his goals shifted slightly to also wanting to free the souls from hell. He called this objective "Project Harrow". It is not known if this was as a result of the butcher's influence or if some other reasoning was behind it. Willis claimed it was a result of the injustice he felt as a prisoner in Inferno but it's possible this was another lie. He discovered an occult scientist called Dr. Patterson whom he drugged and brought to the labyrinth along with a selection of other prisoners, some with skills, others to merely complete the illusion of a challenge. He killed Patterson in the ante-room above the labyrinth and captured his soul, offering him the chance to escape if he slaughtered the rest of the prisoners to complete a "blood toll" that would open the seal around the gate. Patterson bought these lies as it was the only way to ensure his humanity stay intact and he return to the surface. As well as using Patterson, Willis enlisted five individuals to throw into the Chamber of Souls who would also kill the other prisoners and gain their attributes. This was a backup plan in case of Patterson's failure, under the theory that they should be able to locate the sword before the feral effects of Inferno kicked in. These individuals were sane but Willis would use them in the same way. He also unleashed a "soul calling" on Day 15 which resulted in these individuals becoming possessed. Patterson slaughtered all of the other prisoners in the end, using the body of the scientist prisoner John who transformed into a viscous monster after provocation. Willis sent Patterson to obtain the Sword and waited by the Chamber of Souls which he'd rigged with explosives. Harrow and aftermath As Patterson returned with the Sword and attempted to attack Willis, Willis dodged the attack and leapt into the fires of the Chamber of Souls which no longer harboured any ill effects due to the seal being broken. Patterson lunged after him but dropped the sword. Taking the sword, Willis detonated the explosives and flew using his magic above the fiery jetstream of the Chamber and the Acheron combined. He sent a shock into Patterson who plunged into the fires. Finally Willis escaped the chambers flanked by the damned who he had helped escape. Minos attempted to stop him and his army at the surface but was knocked back by Bear, one of the damned who was killed by Curtis. Finally, plunging the Sword of Theseus into Minos, Willis used his magic on the weakened guardian to freeze him solid. With seemingly no opposition to his new army, it is unknown what Willis' next agenda will be. Magic Willis is a magician, but little is known about his powers and the extent of his magic beyond the fact that he was too powerful for Minos to allow in his court. Despite having immense powers, Willis has not been witnessed using them particularly often and these powers were not enough to ensure his survival when he first went for the Sword of Theseus. Below are his known magical capabilities. Electricity: Willis can send jolts of electricity surging through the air and through targets. This has not been seen as fatal, though it can stun a person. Flight: Willis has the ability to levitate his entire body to hover or fly above the ground. Soul Calling: Willis can manipulate spirits and trap them. Trivia *The name Willis for the game comes from the medical term "Circle of Willis" which is the aterial circle that supplies blood to the brain. *Despite Willis being the main "antagonist" of the series, as of the end of "Hell's Gate" he has never run a labyrinth in his original form. *Willis appeared as a cameo in a mafia game also created by Paul. An attempt was made to tie in this appearance canonically to the end of the first labyrinth game however this has later been disregarded as non-canon due to the ensuing plot-holes. *Willis (or at least, MOS using his identity) was played by both Paulus and Boc in the first labyrinth game. Since that wasn't the real Willis, arguably Willis in his original capacity has only so far been played by Paulus. *Before the idea of Willis' soul possessing the butcher, the second labyrinth was originally supposed to feature the butcher using the guise of Willis in a similar way to MOS in the first game. Category:NPC